Rising Starlight
by xoxoserenity
Summary: Konohagakure is getting a serious wake up call...


Three days ago, a ninja from a faraway land came to the village of Konohagakure to warn all of a coming danger. He told of armies filled with great numbers of skilled warriors, marching to destroy the fair village.

All of the villagers laughed and believed nothing the ninja said, as he was not one of their own. For one entire day, the foreign prophet told his story to all that would listen. No one seemed to find his tale true. With each retelling, the laughter grew and the man grew fearful the no one would ever find truth in his words, and they would all continue laughing until their deaths.

The next day, he tried changing the details in his story, to possibly convince someone. Yet, even with the changes, no one found the story believable. It made the prophet very upset, knowing that these once-great people could not take a true tale seriously.

On the third day, the man gave up trying to save the people and left. Without him there, no one had any reason to continue with their laughter. As everyone stopped, the man returned to the village disguised as a high-authority figure. Nobody realized exactly who he was, so he knew he could tell them the warning and they would believe was utterly mistaken, for once he began to speak of danger, the people turned away. His warning was of no use aroung here, so he readied himself to leave again.

"Wait!" a voice called out. He paid no attention to it. "Sir, please!"

"If you cared, you'd have listened before," he said, not turning to see who was speaking to him. He seemed very disgruntled at the thought of someone finally believing.

"Look at me, sir."

The man slowly turned and saw a young girl, early teens at the oldest, standing threr, looking at him intently. "And you are...?" he asked, clearly annoyed.

"My name is of no importance."

"Then why bother talking to me?"

"You see, sir... I have not laughed once in all of these three days. I have not doubted your words nor ridiculed them." She smiled, nodding her head as she did so. "I believed every word you said, but I was too afraid to tell you. But now, your hostileness..."

He frowned. "I'm not buying it, kid."

"Please! I want to survive, after all."

"Then find someone else. An old man, wisened by time, has no business babysitting," he said in a solemn voice. "I cannot do anything more for the village of Konohagakure."

"Neither can I. I am only a child in the eyes of the villagers. There are few people who listen to a plain girl like me."

They stopped speaking. The man, sighing, stuck his hand on the girl's shoulder. She responded with the smile on her face disappearing, being replaced with the fierce look of a fighter going all the way until the end.

"You can see it, can't you? The tragic fate this village holds?" the man asked, moving his hand. The girl nodded. "And what did you see in the sky?"

She thought about it for a few seconds. "I saw clouds. Yes, lots of clouds." He stared blindly at her.

"Clouds, you say?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then you do not _truly_ believe in my words. May the heavens bless you."

The man, the prophet, the one given the chance to save an entire village, gave the girl one last glance before walking out of the village forever. _Sir, what did it mean? _the girl wondered._I believed in you. Why could I not see it, whatever there was in ther sky?_ She said nothing out loud, of course, for if she did, then her life in Konohagakure would be over.

Even if it was to end that night.

* * *

Darkness was falling over the village. Nothing had ever seemed more surreal to the girl than the past hours, where all had had a great laugh about the crazy things the prophet had said. She wanted to tell them all off, tell them they were wrong, tell them to shut their mouths about things they had no business joking around about. But she couldn't find it in her heart to do so, not after the way the man had treated her. Why should she stand up for him?

"Hey, what's wrong?" one of her friends came up to her and asked. "You're acting different."

"Oh, it's nothing," she replied. "Besides, what if that guy was right? What if we really are gonna get killed tonight?"

Her friend laughed. "I'll protect you if that happens."

"You can't even fight off a cat."

"Must you mention that?"

She shrugged. "I do that every time you talk about protecting people. There are other thing's you'd be good at, y'know?"

"Well, being a ninja isn't my strong point..." Her friend sighed contently. "But it was my dream!"

"Speaking of dreams, at least you fulfilled yours. If we do die, mine will never have been accomplished."

"I'm sorry 'bout that," her friend said. "But what you want isn't something I can help you with. After all, I'm a boy, you're a girl, we don't see eye-to-eye."

She giggled. "Oh, whatever! At least you can relate to me. We do have _some_ similarities!"

"Like what?"

"Oh, I dunno... You know them all, Lee!"

"Yeah, I guess I do," he said, crossing his arms across his chest. "We are both ninja, both the same age, both part of the same squad." Sadly, she looked away from her friend as he spoke, trying to hide her eyes. "What's up now?"

"If what he said is true, then..."

"Listen, it's not true! If it was, then we would have been told by someone in our village!" He grabbed her chin and turned her head so he could look straight into her eyes. She was crying, tears rolling down her face. He just smiled and leanded toward her.

"W-what are you...?" she asked, her voice trembling in sadness. He said nothing, only getting his face close enough to hers to kiss her softlly on the cheek.

"Giving you my word."

* * *

The sky, although dark, was completely clear. There were no signs of cloud, like the girl had seen, and no other things. She was on a rooftop, sobbing, looking up into the pitch black pool. For being the last time she'd ever do this, she didn't care too much. Something brushed up against her skin, something hard and dry_. Probably_ _a leaf_, she thought.

"Get down from there!" someone shouted. The voice was familiar to her ears, but she did nothing other than look down. A boy was standing on the ground, looking back up at her. They stayed there for a few minutes, staring deep into each other's eyes, trying to convey possible messages. Although she was upset, her eyes showed faith and love, and the boy's eyes were filled with the raw emotion only found when one is ready to die.

"You really need to get down," he said, his words sharp and clear. "They'll need you out there."

"Out where?"

"Protecting this village."

"You mean..." she gasped. "We're under attack!?" He nodded and she hopped down off of the roof. When she touched the ground, she frose. Hadn't she been told this wasn't real? That it wouldn't happen? They weren't really under attack, were they?

"Well, what are you going to do?" he asked.

Still hoping it wasn't real, she sighed, "Absolutely nothing."

"Not even run away?"

"Not even run away."

They both became silent. In the distance, shrieks of terror and howls of wind could be heard, but there was nothing between them. A battle cry rang out, causing the girl to burst into tears. "No! Not Lee!"

"Why not him?" the boy asked. He noticed she was distressed, so he stuck his arm around her neck, on top of her shoulders.

"He gave me his word! He can't die!"

"How exactly did he give his word in a situation where no one knew enemies were coming?"

She thought about teling him the truth, but what reason would he have to believe her? Although, as she quickly discovered, it was a far-fetched notion, the end was upon them, so she'd have to say it and chance him believing. "I knew. I worried about it, he kissed my head, and now, there's full-out war going on."

"Did you cry?"

"When? I cried a lot."

"During the promise," the boy said. "If someone had made a promise like that to me, I'd cry my eyes out."

She stifled a giggle. "Oh, well, I did let a few tears out. I only thought of him as a friend. What he did was amazing"

"Let out your emotions. Once you're dead, you can't have them back."

Taking his words to heart, the girl began laughing. "Okay, but I don't think this is the right time to be happy..."

"Are dead people happy?"

"Well, to be honest, no."

"Then be happy before you die!" He threw his free arm up in the air. "Unless you're laughing only to be on my good side."

She stopped her laughter. "That's the first time I've done that in three days."

"You didn't laugh when you heard our terrible fate?"

"No, because I thought it'd be wrong..."

"Laughing's never wrong!" he exclaimed, before adding, "Unless you're witnessing someone get killed. Then crying's what you're supposed to do."

She looked into his eyes again. They weren't shining, yet they looked happy. "You didn't want me to see your true emotions until you found mine, did you?" she asked.

He smiled. "You'd think I was weird if I was all happy." Flustered, she realized he was absolutely right. "Not like I'm ever happy. You see, tragedies like this aren't common. I've been through mass murder before."

Everything change when he said that. She stood, shocked, as he lifted up his arm and spun around, his back facing her.

"You aren't gonna tell me what happened?"

"That's one story I'll take to the grave," he mumbled, "because, even if I am going to die, I won't let my past ruin my final moments!" With that, he ran off towards the noises of battle.

A feeling of amazement came over her. He was determined, brave, and most of all, wonderful. "Wait, come back!" Nothing happened. "Come on, Sasuke, don't leave me! You have to get back here!" Still nothing. "Okay, fine! Be that way!" Angered, she marched the opposite way of the fighting.

"Where do you think you're going?" someone asked. She looked ahead and saw a person standing off to the side of the road.

"Nowhere, really. Why do you want to know?"

"Because, like me, you're supposed to be fighting."

"I know, okay?" She stopped and faced the stranger. "What business do you have telling me what to do?" The person stepped forward. In the sky's pale light, it seemed that a ghost had just come from the shadows. She blinked twice. Nope, didn't change. "Whay are you here, anyway?"

"Calm down. You don't need to know everything quite yet."

"If not now, when?"

"Don't worry, Tenten. You'll hear it soon enough," he said. She glared at him. "Do you think I trust you enough to tell you all the things on my mind?

The screams from the fight grew louder. "Yeah, actually, I do!" she replied.

"Too bad." Even louder.

"Please?" It was now a gigantic roar.

"Once they get here." The battle site was quickly approaching, and by the sound of it, not that much further away.

She knew it was over for them. There was no way she'd get him to tell her. In the last seconds before the attackers arrived, she ran up to him and grabbed around his chest, clinging to him for dear life. "I don't want to lose you, like everyone else," she whispered.

"No one wants to lose anyone, but there's no stopping this." He sighed deeply. "They all loved you, like you love me, like I love---" Cut off by a fatal blow to the head, his sentence was never finished.

And, for one moment, Tenten was left alone, in an unforgiving world where she was the only one of her kind left alive. As they began their assault on her, she remembered how, only three days before, a prophet had come to the village telling of a disaster, in which all would be exterminated by pure strength...

When they finished their job, there were two lifeless bodies on the ground, both with smiles on their faces, and two stars in the sky, with rising starlight filling the now-empty village.

A/N: Holy cow. The longest one-shot I've ever written. The most depressing one, too. And I definitely expanded my romance borders, even if I did end it with a traditional pairing. So sad... Oh well, that's what plot bunnies do. They make you sad. (I don't own.) Please review~

Siggy


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